Supreme Law News

Supreme Court on caste ?

The Supreme Court directs all courts to avoid mentioning a litigant's caste or religion in court documents.

"We do not believe that any litigant's caste or religion should be brought up in court or in lower courts.

A conduct like this should be avoided and stopped right away, the Court declared.

Recently, the Supreme Court issued a general order ordering its registry, all high courts, and lower courts to cease referencing litigants' castes or religions in court documents.

Judges Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah noted that the practice has to be avoided and put an end to right away.

"We do not believe that any litigant's caste or religion should be brought up in court or in lower courts. Such behavior ought to be avoided and stopped right away. The Court further directed all High Courts to make sure that a litigant's caste or religion is not mentioned in the memo of parties in any petition, suit, or case that is filed before the High Court or Subordinate Courts within their respective jurisdictions.

We don't see any justification for bringing up a litigant's caste or religion. Such behavior ought to be avoided and stopped right away.

Supreme Court

While granting a transfer petition in a marital dispute that was pending before a Rajasthani family court, the court issued the order.

The Supreme Court was taken aback to discover that the husband and wife's castes had been referenced in the parties' correspondence, even though they had agreed to the case's transfer to a family court in Punjab.

The attorney representing the wife, one of the parties who had filed the transfer petition, told the Supreme Court that since this information had already been included in the case papers filed at the family court, he was forced to bring up the parties' caste in the case papers submitted to the court.

The attorney clarified that he would have run the danger of having the Supreme Court's registry object due to differences in the case information between the case papers filed before the family court and the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court then issued a special ruling prohibiting the mention of a party's caste or religion in any legal proceeding, even if that information were raised in lower courts.

"It is therefore deemed appropriate to pass a general order directing that henceforth the caste or religion of parties shall not be mentioned in the memo of parties of a petition/proceeding filed before this Court, irrespective of whether any such details have been furnished before the courts below," the order from January 10 stated.

The Court mandated that the Court's registry and attorneys be informed of these instructions for prompt compliance.

"A copy of this order shall be placed before the Registrar concerned for perusal and for circulation to the Registrar Generals of all the High Courts for strict compliance," said the Court.

In the transfer petition, the petitioner was represented by advocates Aniket Jain, Vidyut Kayarkar, and Umang Shankar. For the respondent, none was present.

Similarly, Justices Abhay S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal of a different bench had similarly voiced their displeasure with a litigant's caste data appearing in a Rajasthan High Court ruling.

The panel noted that an accused person's caste or religion should never be mentioned in the title of the ruling because it has no bearing on the court's decision in that case.

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( LLM, MBA, (UK), PhD, AIMA, AFAI, PHD Chamber, ICTC, PCI, FCC, DFC, PPL, MNP, BNI, ICJ (UK), WP, (UK), MLE, Harvard Square, London, CT, Blair Singer Institute, (USA), Dip. in International Crime, Leiden University, the Netherlands )

Advocate & Consultant Supreme Court of India, High Courts & Tribunals.